[another_someone]

How do you make those statements with such certainty?

I did a web search on Arsenio Winston.

How do you know that there was no love lost between the councillor and Morris? This was their second meeting, but what was the first meeting about? Polensek first met 17-year-old Arsenio Winston last year, when he met with the (then) teen and his mother to try to get the boy to turn his life around. That may well have been a confrontational meeting, but (it's fair to assume)Polensek went there with good intentions.

The following seems to be the most complete (cannot say how accurate, since I have not found independent corroberatoin) account of events I have yet found (I had not found this when I replied earlier):

http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2007/07/family_fumes_over_councilmans.html

Polensek said Winston has been causing problems in his neighborhood for a couple of years.

Winston lives with his mother in another part of the city, but stayed with a friend in Polensek's ward previously, Lewis said.

The councilman said he confronted the teenager and his friends in a park about a year ago after residents complained the group was trashing the playground. He asked them to clean up after themselves and claims Winston responded with a profane comment, which Polensek recounted in the letter.

Lewis said she heard her son was disrespectful to the councilman and set up a meeting so Winston could apologize.

"I'm from the old school," she said. "You get smart with an adult, you've got to apologize."

Polensek said the three met and Winston apologized.

Court records show Winston was charged with aggravated assault in May 2005 and spent three months in an Ohio Department of Youth Services detention center.

Lewis said her lawyer advised her not to discuss any legal matters involving her son, but said she does not condone criminal behavior.

"If he did the crime, he has to do the time," she said. "If he has to go to jail or probation, then that's what he has to do."

But she said it's not Polensek's place to tell him to "go to jail or the cemetery soon," as he did in his letter.

"It's not acceptable," she said.

From reading one letter you make the assumption that the man has done nothing for near on 30 years, and that he is impotent. How does that figure? Impotent, he could well be. he is but one councillor, do you know for a fact that he never made proposals and tried to get local laws enacted or enforced? One man can make strides and inroads, but he needs the backing of others to get them to fruition.

I agree that it is difficult for a counsellor to be doing much in the wider scheme of things, but the point was that you commended him for taking action, and I suggested that no action was taken.  If you are now saying that there was no meaningful action that could be taken by him, then that is another matter; but that is very different from commending him for taking meaningful action.

So what is Polensek's record as a councillor? We already know that he went out of his way to try and get one teen back on the straight and narrow, but what else has he done?

Where do you get that impression.  Calling a young lad a loser, and telling him he has no future, is scarcely trying to get him back on the straight and narrow.  Many of these guys know they are losers, and don't see any alternative to being losers - so reinforcing that self image is scarcely going to help matters.

During his time in Council, he has served on numerous committees as member and chairperson. Currently, he serves on the Employment, Affirmative Action
and Training, Health & Human Services, Public Service and Public Utilities committees. In November 1999, he was unanimously elected as President of Cleveland City Council and worked diligently for his neighborhood as well as to create a legislative body that provided the same proven leadership for all of Cleveland's neighborhoods. Through his leadership, Council created the Neighborhood Equity Fund, which targeted funds for neighborhood development projects. He served as Council President until January 2002.

You don't mention where you quote from, although it looks like it was lifted from teh Cleveland City Council website (http://www.clevelandcitycouncil.org/Home/CouncilMembers/Ward11MichaelDPolensek/MichaelDPolensekBiography/tabid/147/Default.aspx), which is scarcely going to be critical of its own councillors.

And how do you know that Polensek has not sent other letters, to other criminals in his ward?

It seems, after further investigation, that Polensek has a habit of writing confrontational letters to a range of people he considers anti-social (not only criminal).

The trouble is that while this kind of policy may seem attractive in a wild west sort of way, it is the same sort of attitude that George Bush has brought to the White House, and as we have seen, it not so much solves problems as makes them.

how do you know that "Polensek has no plan to tackle drugs crime"

It does not seem that this really has much to do specifically with drugs crime as anti-social behaviour (it just so happened that this guy was recently arrested on a drugs charge - and so the reference to drugs was made).

If he had a plan, he would be implementing it, and be seeing results (assuming it is a worthwhile plan) rather than sending ad hoc letters.  The one or two recipients of these letters, even if they were to take note, will not change the underlying structural issues.  The reality, starting from a confrontational approach rarely gets people to do as you desire (which is why I have never liked Paxman either).  I am not saying you should not be firm, but firmness and confrontation are different things.